Judy (surname unknown) is one of the two deuteragonists (along with Plato) of the 1955 coming-of-age Warner Bros. film, Rebel Without A Cause. She's a troubled teenager with adolescence issues with her father after he stopped paying father stopped paying as much attention to her and would reproach her grown-up demeanor and maturity.
She was portrayed by Natalie Wood.
Why She Rocks[]
- Natalie Wood does an amazing performance as Judy.
- Just like the other two leads she served as a deconstruction of the "trouble-making teenager" trope back when the film came out. For Judy, she's an independent mature teenage girl who was growing up naturally and her father just happened to be uncomfortable with her older self and stopping loving her, which she had no control over. As a result, she began to wonder what her purpose was, and ended up joining a local street gang hoping they would give her the love and attention she wants.
- Jerkish moments aside, especially around Buzz's gang, she's ultimately a good person even before she grew a serious relationship with Buzz as she had gotten along fairly well with Plato and had a pretty touching moment.
- She's one of the those "token girl of the team" characters, as she's the only member of the main trio to be female, and most of Buzz's team consisted of males.
- Character Development: She starts the film as kind of arrogant while she's the girlfriend of gang leader Buzz Gunderson (as a way of coping with her relationship with her father) whose gang whose often tease Jim. Eventually, Buzz ends up getting killed in the "chickee run", and was able up getting closer to Jim as a result; Buzz's lack of peer pressure allows her to officially withdraw her cold demeanor to become more sincere, genuine, open to other people's thoughts and overall friendly. She even apologizes for making fun of him earlier that day.
- She's a great substitute "mother figure" towards Plato.
Bad Qualities[]
- Even though we know her reason her rebellious nature, her family life isn't touched upon is much as the other two leads. Also, after her boyfriend Buzz dies, she basically serves the role of Jim's girlfriend and family life doesn't even get talked about for that point on.